Reviews: Dragon Age Redemption

Simple fun, but no Dragon Age Origins

The character depth and story-telling doesn't match that of the actual games or novels, but that's to be expected when Redemption is made up of several five minute episodes. The story and characters are entertaining, if cheesy. Nyree in particular is hilarious and provides some surprisingly insightful comments. The odd references to characters/events we know from the games also make up for the infrequent lore errors. It's worth watching, even if for nothing other than some extra background on the character of Tallis, to add to what we know from the Mark of the Assassin DLC.

Cheap but fun.

While the premise itself isn't very promising, it comes off surprisingly well! The four characters square off nicely against each other, each with their own particular flaws and at least one gripe with another party member. You can definitely tell it's made on a small budget, but everyone gets into it and the acting is decent. I think they'd all grown on me by the end, though a lot of the time it was hard not to think 'Wow, Codex has become badass?, also bonus points whoever did the makeup on the quanari mage.

The plot itself was fairly good and it kept moving. I'd definitely recommend a watch, especially if you're a Dragon Age fan, it shows what a good universe Bioware have created, I hope there's more stuff like to come!

Cheesy, But Entertaining

Live-action fantasy is hard to pull off. Fantasy is heavily reliant on special effects and elaborate action sequences, and the hallmarks of the genre are over-the-top villains, hammy dialogue and larger-than-life heroes. None of these things are easy to do in live action unless you have Peter Jackson's skill and budget.

As such, anyone watching Redemption has to be prepared for a certain level of Narm. It's not quite as bad as the old Saturday afternoon action series like Hercules The Legendary Journeys, but it's still pretty cheesy. The shoestring budget does not help, especially in regards to the magical effects.

If you can stomach the inherent corniness, however, there's a fair bit to like about Redemption. It's a very easy watch, and while the plot is predictable, it's also a lot of fun. Most of the appeal will be to Dragon Age fans; outside of a few minor mistakes here, the series is very faithful to the lore. But anyone with a taste for fantasy should be able to enjoy it.

On the whole, the performances are good (particularly from the actors playing Cairn and Nyree) and the writing is decent. Day even makes for a fairly convincing Action Girl as Tallis.

In some circles, Tallis has been branded as a Mary Sue character because Tallis is never called out for the abuse she heaps on others, particularly poor Josmael. Tallis might be a little too easily forgiven, but the character slips up too often to be considered as wish fulfillment.

The one major criticism I'll level at Redemption is that it's not long enough. The story wraps up a little too quickly and could have been stretched to seven or eight episodes. That in itself should be taken as an indication of the series' quality — at the end of it, I was left wanting more.

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